Pads of round or polygonal shape made of cotton mat or similar material have become common articles in hygiene, cosmetics, and medicine. The products available previously on the market, while they were satisfactory in terms of absorbency and softness, had the undesirable tendency to lose fibers, so that fibers of the batting remained on the skin.
It has already been proposed that this disagreeable feature be eliminated by mixing thermoplastic fibers with the cotton or similar fibers and fusing them at various points to the outer surface of the cotton pad (European Patent 0 124 834). European Patent 0 135 404 also proposes that the fibers in the cotton web be firmly held in the interior of the web as well, by what is known as "hydraulic wrapping", in such a way that they can no longer readily come loose. Finally, it is known from German Utility Model 85 33 322 that a swab, made of cotton and/or viscose fibers, may be made by adding synthetic melting fibers to it, which are distributed over the entire volume of the tip and are joined to the fibers adjoining them by means of an at least superficial pressure-free fusion process.